Lineup spots 1-4 appear set.

[Goose]

So says Geoff Baker in his blog this morning.

Spots 1-thru-4 appear set in stone and will be as follows:

1. Ichiro
2. Adrian Beltre
3. Raul Ibanez
4. Richie Sexson

Beltre had a .941 OPS in the 2 hole last year(in his biggest sample size as well, 258 AB) so continuing to put him there seems like a good idea.

[hot rod]

I'm not a Beltre fan. He'll have to prove his worth to me. Its about time he produced. With his awful OBP, batting #2 seems silly. He had 2 bright spots last season......other than that he was pitiful.

[Goose]

I only count one bright spot, of course that bright spot was June-October where he hit .286/.348/.543.

Pitiful? Carl Everett was pitiful. Jose Vidro is likely to be pitiful. An .800 OPS(ok .793) with gold glove defense is far from pitiful.

[dawgncarolina]

Originally Posted by Goose

I only count one bright spot, of course that bright spot was June-October where he hit .286/.348/.543.

Pitiful? Carl Everett was pitiful. Jose Vidro is likely to be pitiful. An .800 OPS(ok .793) with gold glove defense is far from pitiful.

Totally agree, especially when you consider that OPS came from a right handed hitter playing in Safeco Field.

I'm still a posiBeltre.

[hot rod]

Beltre's 2006 stats by month BA/OBP

April .189/.284
May .264/.302
June .324/.387
July .260/.327
Aug .277/.342
Sept .280/.322
Oct .250/.250

For sure he performed well against the NL teams in June. I just thought we would get a little more production than .267 BA for the money. Roids work and we got screwed IMO.

[bedir than average]

One would think that Power doesn't even matter, nor does the park?

[hot rod]

We have finished in last place 3 years in a row. In our park, left handed hitters have a better chance of helping us win. Power does matter....Beltre hit most of his dingers in Aug and Sept when it didn't matter.

The deal with beltre is that we based our decision to pay him super star money on his contract year. He has never come close to those numbers before or after.

His history is that he is a .270 hitter/.330 OBP/ maybe 25 dinger guy if you average out his contract roid year where he hit 48 dingers.

[bedir than average]

I repeat myself, if you took the curve of development from prior to Beltre's botched surgery the player that he was in 2004 is quite visible, though not probable. There was plenty of reason to think he'd be great.

Considering the revenue this team has Beltre's salary should not be what we judge him by, but instead we should judge him on how he performs vs his peers at third base. I doubt you will find more than a handful of thirdbaseman with a better overall value when you account for the park.

[Goose]

Somebody should create a faq or something concerning Beltre. Because I could swear we've had this conversation concerning his value a dozen times.

[Slica]

Boy are you guys going to be disappointed. Apparently the genius that is Hargrove and Pentland are actually leaning towards...drum roll please...

...Jose Vidro. Seriously. Vidro is so dellusional that he got the silly idea hes a gap hitter...lol oh boy.

M's search for No. 3 hitter; Vidro most likely candidate

I will throw it if that happens.

[hot rod]

Bavasi was suppose to get us a legit #3 hitter and TOR pitcher. He didn't get either one. We have Grover making lineup decisions. Everyone has different ideas but dang Vidro our #3 hitter....its not even funny.

[Timberwolf]

We have a pretty tough early schedule. As fans we are in a no-lose situation, either the team gets off to a competitive start or Beavis and Meatlhead Mike get fired. Maybe we are even lucky enough to get rid of Butthead (Lincoln).

I have a dream, where Hiroshi Yamauchi shows up in person at Safeco Field and makes Hargrove surrender his jacket and cap on the pitchers mound and sends him to the showers- permanently.

[Jim Potable]

I'm guessing Baker has a better handle on the situation, but Fox Sports offered a different view of the lineup situation.

Ichiro will be the leadoff hitter, and Hargrove is leaning strongly toward having Adrian Beltre hit second. Beltre was at his best as the No. 2 hitter last year, averaging .310 with 13 homers, and the manager liked the look of that.

"There's a question in the three spot," Hargrove said.

Last year at the end of the season, catcher Kenji Johjima was the No. 3 hitter. Hargrove is leaning against that because Johjima was more productive in his first year batting sixth and seventh.

But that doesn't settle the issue of who will bat third, and, indeed, Johjima still could emerge as the man.

Because of the unsettled state of the third spot, the four and five spots also are unsettled, with left fielder Raul Ibanez and first baseman Richie Sexson fitting somewhere. Ibanez could fit in any of the three spots, and Sexson is a candidate at both fourth and five.

Maybe that's an older piece, or just wrong, but there is a suggestion that things aren't set 1-4.

[hot rod]

Remember that last year Beltre and Sexson started off very weak. Hopefully Sexson winter training will help him to hit early in the season. Beltre trained less supposedly and let his hair grow. So we will see if hair length helps his BA.

So what I saying is put the hitters that perform in the spots that produce runs. Salary shouldn't have anything to do with hitting position....hitting should.

[bedir than average]

Things aren't set for the lineup, not at all. From the same chat that Hargrove had with the reporters that inspired Bakers "the lineup is set"

Drayer got this

KOMOradio.com - Seattle, Washington - Headlines - Sneak Peek at the Batting Order

First off, obviously, Ichiro will lead off. Ibanez and Sexson will be in the middle of the order. Vidro and Guillen, according to the skipper, are good hitters who will fall in the top 6 or 7 spots.
Where does Beltre hit? Hargrove said he would like to hit him second to start out and see where it goes. Beltre had success there last year and in talking to him this week he said he wouldn’t mind starting out there.

Hargrove said that the big question for him regarding the line up right now is who will hit third. My guess would be Ibanez to start with the line up going Ichiro, Beltre, Ibanez, Sexson, Guillen, Vidro, Joh, Lopez, Betancourt. Lopez could hit 9th to start because he is going to miss a couple of weeks of spring games with the ankle.

So yeah, Hargrove isn't a complete idiot.